Responding to a Public Accounts Committee
report on readying the NHS and social care for the COVID-19 peak,
which includes recommendations for government on preparing for a
second peak of the virus, Cllr Paulette Hamilton, Vice Chair of
the Local Government Association’s Community Wellbeing Board,
said:
“Social care has been on the frontline
throughout this crisis but this report’s conclusions show that
those who use, work and volunteer in these vital services were
not given as much priority as the NHS from the
outset.
“Inadequate funding and delayed reforms,
compounded by a lack of PPE, testing and changing guidance, all
contributed towards a tragic loss of life in our care homes and
other places where people receive
care.
“We cannot and must not allow any of
these mistakes to be repeated again, if the country is to
experience a second wave of coronavirus. Social care deserves
parity of esteem with the NHS.
“This needs to be backed up by a genuine,
long-term and sustainable funding settlement for adult social
care, which we have been calling for long before the current
crisis.
“We urge the Government to act on the
committee’s powerful recommendations as soon as possible,
alongside the beginning of promised cross-party talks on the
future of adult social care.”
NOTES TO
EDITORS
The LGA represents more than 330 councils
of all types across England. We work on behalf of our members to
support, promote and improve local
government.
It is councils who had led communities through the COVID-19
crisis. Our recent polling shows that 71
per cent of residents trust their council and two thirds are
satisfied with the way their local council runs things in their
area. Our new discussion paper - Re-thinking Local - sets
out how councils must now be empowered to locally-lead the
COVID-19 recovery and tackle the economic, environmental and
community challenges that we wi l! l face as a result of the
pandemic.
